The Agoric Papers

These three papers by Mark S. Miller and K. Eric Drexler appeared in
The Ecology of Computation, Bernardo Huberman (ed.) Elsevier
Science Publishers/North-Holland, 1988.

Markets and Computation: Agoric Open Systems

Like all systems involving goals, resources, and actions, computation
can be viewed in economic terms. This paper examines markets as a model for
computation and proposes a framework--agoric systems--for applying the power of
market mechanisms to the software domain. It then explores the consequences of
this model and outlines initial market strategies.

Incentive Engineering: for Computational Resource Management

Agoric computation will require market-compatible mechanisms for the
allocation of processor time and storage space. Recasting processor scheduling
as an auction process yields a flexible priority system. Recasting storage
management as a system of decentralized market negotiations yields a
distributed garbage collection algorithm able to collect unreferenced loops
that cross trust boundaries. Algorithms that manage processor time and storage
in ways that enable both conventional computation and market-based decision
making will be useful in establishing agoric systems: they lie at the boundary
between design and evolution. Algorithms are described in detail.

Comparative Ecology: A Computational Perspective

A long-standing dream in the field of artificial intelligence has been
to use evolutionary processes to produce systems of greater competence than
those we can directly design. This paper compares different evolutionary
models--such as biological ecosystems, markets, and EURISKO--with respect to
this goal. This comparison suggests that a form of ecosystem here termed a
direct market (as opposed to the indirect market of human society) is a
promising basis for computational ecosystems.